Forward Deployed Engineering
Forward Deployed Engineering, or FDE, is a simple idea with a long name. Instead of selling you software and wishing you luck, we put engineers inside your business. They learn how the work really happens, build AI into it, and own the result until it runs every day in the real world.
Most AI projects do not fail because the technology is wrong. They fail in the last mile: the older systems, the scattered data, the five people with five ideas of what success means. That last mile is the job. We are the AI implementation partner that does not leave before it is done.
Why AI stalls after the demo
The demo always works. Someone shows you an AI agent answering questions or filling in a form, and it is genuinely impressive. Then it meets your business. Your customer records live in two places. The approval step everyone skips is the one the agent was told to follow. The system that holds your prices was set up years ago by someone who has since left.
This is where most AI projects quietly stop. The vendor delivered what they promised: working software. Nobody promised it would work here, with these people, on this data. So it sits in a pilot, comes up in a meeting now and then, and the business goes back to doing it by hand.
Forward deployed engineering exists because of that gap. Palantir pioneered the model, and today the leading AI companies hire forward deployed engineers for the same reason: the hard part was never the technology, it was making it work inside a real business. We bring that model to every business that wants AI to actually do the work.
Signs you need engineers, not another tool
The pilot that never left the pilot
You tried an AI tool. It worked in the demo and it worked in the trial. It never became how the work actually gets done.
Every vendor stops at the edge of their product
Each tool you buy works on its own. Connecting them to each other, and to the way your team works, is quietly left to you.
Nobody owns the result
The software company owns the software. The consultant owns the slides. Nobody owns whether it actually saves your team time on a Tuesday afternoon.
Your team has no week to spare
Everyone agrees AI could help. Nobody has a free week to work out how, let alone rebuild their process around it.
How a forward deployed engagement runs
Five steps, and the order matters. Our DRIVE method runs underneath every one of them, so you always know what happens next.
We come in
Our engineers sit with the people who do the work. We map how it really happens, not how the process document says it happens, and we agree with you in plain terms what success looks like before anything is built.
We pick the first problem worth solving
One problem that matters to the business and can be solved soon. A real result early is how both of us find out we are building the right thing.
We build it in
AI agents, automations and the connections between your systems, built into the tools your team already uses. The older software and the scattered data are part of the job, not a reason to stop.
We run it with your team
It goes live with your people, on your real work. We watch it, fix what the real world shows us, and keep adjusting until it holds up without us standing next to it.
We stay, and take on the next one
Once one problem is solved, the next one is usually obvious. We keep improving what we built and move to the next piece, so AI spreads through the business one working system at a time.
What this covers
Senior engineers who work alongside your team, learn how the work is really done, and stay responsible for the result.
Agents and automations that take repetitive work off your team, built into the tools your people already use every day.
Your older software, your spreadsheets and your newer tools, joined up so information moves on its own and the AI has something reliable to work with.
Going live on real work, watching how it behaves, and fixing whatever the real world shows us that a demo never would.
Your people learn to run, adjust and trust what we built, so it keeps working long after launch day.
A standing plan for the next problem worth solving, so AI keeps spreading through the business one working system at a time.
How we work
The same six steps run every piece of work we do, from one task to a whole business. It is called DRIVE, and it is the reason we can tell you what happens next at any point in a project.
See the DRIVE methodA short call, no deck. We will tell you whether this is the right thing for you to be doing, including when it is not.
Book a callWhat it looks like in practice
Three situations forward deployed engineering is built for. Yours will not match any of them exactly, and that is exactly why the engineers come to you.
The inbox that runs the business
Orders, questions and complaints arrive by email, and someone sorts them by hand all day. An engineer sits with that person, learns every exception they handle without thinking, and builds an agent that does the sorting and drafts the replies. The person stops sorting and starts handling the cases that actually need them.
Three systems that never spoke
Sales in one tool, operations in another, finance in a spreadsheet, and every report is a copy and paste job. Our engineers connect them where they already are, so information moves on its own and the AI finally has something reliable to work with.
The AI tool you already paid for
The licence is bought, the trial went well, and nobody uses it. We find out why on the floor rather than in a meeting, then wire it into the steps where the work really happens.
When this is not the right thing
- You need one small tool built to a clear spec, and you have someone ready to run it. A standard project will do that for less.
- Nobody in the business can make time to sit with our engineers. Forward deployed work depends on access to the people who do the job.
- You want a strategy document rather than a working system. We build and we stay; if the deliverable is slides, someone else will suit you better.
Questions people ask us first
An engineer who works inside your business instead of from a distance. They write the software, connect it to your systems, and stay responsible for whether it actually works for your team. Palantir pioneered the model, and it is now how the leading AI companies get their technology working for customers.
A consultant usually hands you advice. A software vendor hands you a product. A forward deployed engineer hands you a working result, and is still there when it meets the real world. You get the build and the ownership in one.
No. The model started with the largest companies, but the problem it solves is sharper in a growing business, where nobody has a spare week to make new technology fit. Every business deserves AI that actually works, and that is who we built ADI for.
Both. Our engineers work on site with your team when being in the room matters, and remotely when it does not. We agree the mix with you at the start, and it can change as the work does.
No. Working with what you already run is the point. Your older software and scattered data are part of the job we take on, not something you have to fix before we arrive.
You do. It is built in your accounts, documented, and your team is trained to run it. Holding your systems as a way of keeping your business is not a model we are interested in.
A short call. We will tell you whether a forward deployed engagement is the right fit for you, including when it is not.
Where this touches the rest of the work
- AI Agents & AutomationMost forward deployed work ends in agents and automations. This is what they do once they are running.
- Data, AI & AnalyticsAI is only as good as the data under it. When the data is the problem, this is where the work starts.
- Enterprise PlatformsThe systems your business already runs on are where AI has to fit. Sometimes they need work first.
Ask us one question about it.
You do not have to book anything to find out whether this is worth doing. Send the question and a person will answer it. If it turns out you do not need us, we will say that too.
Or book a call instead